


build a nest of yellow yarn

by androids_fighting93



Series: never let me go [9]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, M/M, Moving In Together, Multi, Post-Finale, polyamory (not the focus of the fic)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 13:03:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13927680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/androids_fighting93/pseuds/androids_fighting93
Summary: “I’m his - ugh, his mentor or whatever, right? I should get some say.”Lucretia raises her eyebrows. “I’m sure you have a strong opinion on the subject,” she says fondly.And that’s how Taako finds himself spending his afternoon reading over adoption papers.





	build a nest of yellow yarn

**Author's Note:**

> GOD THIS THING HAS BEEN KICKING MY ASS. I don't know how I can bang out a random fic idea that I just thought of in a weekend but the major ones I plan ahead take me ages. I finally managed to wrangle it into shape, though!
> 
> Since this series is all out of order lol - this takes place after the finale, but before _words are futile devices._ A little AU from the finale (Magnus doesn't end up back in Raven's Roost, for example) but most things still fit. The dynamics here probably won't make sense without reading at least a couple other fics in the series, so I definitely encourage you to at least go check out _strong enough to break your fall_ and _a specter of yourself here among the living_ first!
> 
> Title is from Violet Clementine by Lady Lamb, which has become a little bit of a running theme in this series... mostly because I listened to it obsessively while writing the first fic and now they're inextricably connected (though i did tweak the line a little for the title of _strong enough_.)
> 
> \--
> 
> you build a nest of yellow yarn  
> you hope to god the yellow yarn  
> is soft enough to break your fall  
> should you fall,  
> should you fall  
> \-- Lady Lamb, “Violet Clementine”

It started with an offhand comment from Angus, one night up on the moon base. They’re still staying here, for now, because they don’t have anywhere else to go – excluding Davenport, who left almost immediately, and Merle, who needed to be with his family - and there’s so much work to do, with the reconstruction efforts after the destruction the Hunger has unleashed on the world, and the Bureau of Balance transitioning to its new role as the Bureau of Benevolence. Angus, still under Lucretia’s care, has stayed and Taako will die before he admits that he’s happy about that. He sticks to Taako like glue, even more than before, full of questions about the many worlds they travelled to. He’d assumed that Lucretia had some plan for the kid until one day he says something - in that horridly cheerful way that he says even the saddest things - that makes Taako go temporarily insane.

“I guess I’ll be all on my own again soon. I hope I don’t get sent to an orphanage…”

And he’s not even trying to sound guilt-trippy, is the worst thing, Taako would honestly prefer it if he was, but he shrugs and goes back to his lessons, totally accustomed to the idea that he’ll be alone. And that’s just - no.

He’s in Lucretia’s office before he makes the conscious decision to be there, ignoring her secretary’s protests about appointments and calling ahead, not even knocking on the door. Luckily Lucretia is actually there, sitting behind her desk bent over a veritable mountain of paperwork. She blinks at him owl-like through her glasses as he flops into the chair opposite her, his arms crossed, expression carefully controlled.

“Taako,” she says, with a small smile, setting aside her pen. “I… didn’t expect to see you.”

“Didn’t expect to be here.” They haven’t talked, or more specifically _he_ hasn’t talked, not since the day of the battle. Not for lack of trying, on her part, but a quick Blink away from the situation usually gets his message across. And it nearly startles him how angry he is looking at her even now, he thinks everyone sort of expected him to come around after the initial shock wore off but no. His hatred is jarring but more so is how sad he feels, but that’s not what he’s here for, so he does what Taako does best and shoves all that down where even he can’t reach it, where he knows it will fester but that’s a problem for future-Taako to deal with. He leans forward and says, “Are you gonna send Agnes to a fucking orphanage?”

Lucretia stills, surprised again. She rubs absently at the joints of her hands and says, “You know his name is Angus, right? You do know that?”

“Not the point, Luce.” The nickname comes out automatically and he hates it. “Madame Director,” he corrects himself and smiles at the way she flinches ever so slightly and hates that, too.

“Okay,” she says. “I don’t know where he got that idea. I have been trying to figure out the best option for him - he is a little boy, I can’t exactly let him be on his own even if he’s perfectly able to care for himself – but tracking down any of his remaining family is proving to be… difficult. An orphanage would preferably be the last resort, I would much rather see him board at a private school, but where would be good enough for him…”

“You’d just leave him with assholes he doesn’t even know?”

“If I thought I would be a suitable guardian I would keep him in my care, I’m sure he would continue to do great work for the Bureau, but with everything as it is right now…”

“Absolutely not,” Taako snaps, and to her credit she doesn’t flinch this time, just looks tired. He hates every single one of these ideas.  “I’m his - _ugh,_ his mentor or whatever, right? I should get some say.”

Lucretia raises her eyebrows. “I’m sure you have a strong opinion on the subject,” she says fondly, which he ignores.

And that’s how Taako finds himself spending his afternoon reading adoption papers, legal jargon and the question of how the hell Lucretia has the authority to do this (but like, she also managed to employ a literal child, so all bets are off) making his head spin, he has no idea what he’s doing, just that he won’t see Angus passed around between distant relatives who he doesn’t even know, who don’t understand him or even like him, the way he and Lup were. They had thought it better to run and fend for themselves, after their aunt died and they were to be carted off yet again. He won't let that boy be alone like he was, he just won't do it, the rest he'll figure out as he goes. A stupid idea? Probably, but that rarely deters him.

“Cool cool cool, where do I sign?” He snaps his fingers, but Lucretia holds onto her pen.

“I need you to be serious about this, Taako,” she says. “Once you sign these you can’t just back out when things get difficult, it’s an enormous responsibility.”Like he’s asking for a damn dog.

“I get it.” He doesn’t know a lot about how human kids work but Angus is what, ten? Eleven? Out of diapers, probably, so Taako gets to skip all the gross stuff, all he has to worry about is puberty. Maybe he’ll get lucky and that won’t happen until he’s twenty like it does for elves.

“You need a place for the boy to live, and hopefully go to school unless you’re prepared to educate him yourself. Have you even thought about where you’re going to live once you leave the Bureau?”

He doesn’t ask how she knows he isn’t staying; he supposes it was never really a question. He’ll sure miss that sweet, sweet paycheck, though. “I’ll have you know,” he lies, just to stop her from patronizing him, because this is what a Responsible Real Adult would do, “I’m, uhhhh, about to buy a house, actually, so suck it.”

_Fuck!_

Lucretia raises her eyebrows. “That’s… congratulations, I suppose,” she says slowly, clearly skeptical. “Once that purchase is finalized, you can sign the papers.”

“Riiiight,” Taako says weakly. “Yeah, we actually just signed yesterday.”

“You and Magnus?” Her eyes light up, her hand coming to her heart, she had always supported the two of them during their time on the Starblaster – and he had always suspected that she knew they were together after being hired at the Bureau, even when Taako didn’t know what they were doing.

“Sure, sure.” _What the fuck!!! What are you doing!!!_ His mind screams, but he’d literally rather die than admitting to fucking up in front of Lucretia. Surely he can find a house, and convince Magnus to move in with him, and convince Magnus that they should adopt an actual child. No problem.

“Oh, Taako. That’s so wonderful. Of course, the Bureau will be happy to offer any assistance in your relocation.”

"I don't want your money," he says, still holding his hand out for a pen.

"…I understand.” Lucretia says softly, face falling, but she composes herself quickly. “Well then, if I can just see some confirmation of that as soon as possible, we can finish this.”

“Fair enough,” he says, and he stands up, turning to leave. He feels a little shaky and wonders if this is what it’s like when you find out you’re going to have a baby, but Angus isn’t his son, it’s just the most logical option, so he pointedly ignores the feeling, it’ll be _fine._

"Taako?"

He glances over his shoulder to see Lucretia smiling, just a little. "What?"

"I'm... really proud of you.”

Taako bites his tongue, knowing he will say something cruel without even thinking about it. He doesn't want her words to mean anything to him, he doesn't want to give even the slightest fuck about her, but.

She had been his sister, once.

"Cool," he says, voice unexpectedly rough, and he turns and runs.

* * *

Taako’s walk back to the dorms passes in a bit of a daze, he has to keep reminding himself that this doesn’t make Angus his son or some bullshit like that, he’s just there to make sure the kid keeps up with his studies and doesn’t starve, whatever, it’ll be easy, no one would want to call him a dad anyway. He has no idea how Magnus will react to this, or _Kravitz_ for that matter, shit, he’s not used to this whole rushing in thing.

Magnus is there when he gets home, which is good because he doesn’t have time to work himself into a panic before he tells him the news, and terrible because Lup and Barry are there too, all three of them standing over the stove making an irresponsibly tall stack of pancakes, and Lup is going to _freak out on him._

“Hey!” Magnus grins, and Taako winces at the sight of his open mouth full of pancake. Lup, still spectral, is trying and failing to use a spatula; it isn’t going great. “You hungry?”

“Uh, I’m good,” he said, voice too high pitched. “Sooooo uh, don’t freak out, kay?”

Lup and Barry turn to him in unison. “Bro, that’s a surefire way to freak someone out,” she says.

“Yeah, seriously. What’s up?” Magnus steps closer, taking Taako’s hand, the calloused pad of his thumb rubbing soothingly over Taako’s knuckles.

“How would you like to buy a house with me? That’s a trick question, only right answer is yes.”

Magnus laughs, startled. “I mean - _yes,_ of course, but where did that come from?”

“Wellllll. Madame Director may be under the impression that we already bought one.”

“Why would you tell her that?”

“Because she wasn’t going to let me adopt Agnes if I didn’t have a house for him to live in I guess, it’s whatever.”

This comes out in a tumbling rush and Lup catches up faster than Magnus does; her pancakes are left forgotten as she rushes up to Taako, while Barry just looks amused as hell. “Taako,” Lup says, while Magnus blinks, slowly processing the information. “Did you accidentally adopt a kid?”

“In my defense,” Taako begins, and then can’t actually think of a defense.

“How,” Barry laughs, “do you _accidentally_ –“

“I’m pretty sure I blacked out for a minute! I shouldn’t be held responsible for my actions!”

Barry’s doubled over now and his laughter proves to be infectious. Lup giggles, “Were you - like, were you fucking _possessed?_ ”

“It’s the brat’s fault, talking about how he’s gonna be all alone again, am I supposed to just let him get sent away?  Fuck!“

“Okay, okay, breathe,” Magnus says, pulling him in closer, an arm around his shoulder. “It’s fine, we’ll – we’ll do it, we’ll figure it out.”

“No, you shouldn’t – you can’t take responsibility for me being fucking insane, babe.” Taako groans, head in his hands. Why didn’t he let Lucretia give him any money, houses are expensive, _kids_ are expensive, what’s _wrong_ with him. “I’m gonna fuck him up, I’m going to be terrible at this –“

“Don’t start that,” Magnus says, pressing a firm kiss to Taako’s forehead, and Taako closes his eyes. He needs to get his shit together, he needs to find a house, he needs to tell Angus - he needs to just be here, for a second, here with Magnus, and remember how to breathe. “We’re going to be fine. Angus loves you.”

“Gross.”

“Dibs on being the cool aunt,” Lup says.

Barry nods. “We’ll be right there to help you, bud. Kravitz, too.”

“You’re coming too, right?” Taako says, surprised at how shaky his voice is as he looks to Lup, he can’t fathom doing this without his sister; luckily she just gives him a look like, _obviously, dingus,_ no questions asked. Taako takes a deep breath, turns back to Magnus. “So – you’re really cool with this?”

“We said we’d stick together,” Magnus says. There isn’t even a hint of doubt in his voice, somehow, and Taako doesn’t know how he _does_ that. “Of course I want to live with you. And I want Ango to have a home. So yeah, fuck it. Let’s be dads.”

And _after_ is suddenly _right now._

* * *

The house is about halfway between Neverwinter and Bottlenose Cove, a day or maybe two by horse away from both (less if the steed in question is Garyl). It’s not the mansion Taako always secretly hoped for, but it’s bigger than anything else he’s ever called home. He and Magnus had seen a few other places that were up for sale elsewhere, but Magnus kept tutting about the size and features of the architecture than Taako didn’t pretend to understand.

“We need room for everyone to visit and stay over,” he said, “and Ango needs a room, and you have to have your kitchen…”

The list of things that a house requires keeps growing. A big yard, maybe a fireplace, and Taako is being very picky when it comes to kitchens if nothing else. Mostly he follows Magnus’s lead on all that, Taako has hardly ever lived in a house let alone bought one, what does he know about how Real People live? His longest lasting home was a fucking spaceship, a space that was only built to be lived in for two months. The expanse of the yard and the high ceilings of the house are making Taako more claustrophobic than any of the tiny caravans he’d grown up in, the twin beds or even smaller cots he and Lup had learned to squeeze onto. Or whatever the opposite of claustrophobia is; either way it’s the same tightness in his chest. Magnus, at least, had lived something akin to a “normal life” in the time they were all apart, knows vaguely what he’s doing.

But it’s beautiful, the house they end up at, he has to admit that. It needs a little work - a rusty hinge or two, warped wood that needs replaced, nothing too bad - which Magnus leaps at the chance to do himself, of course. But it’s solid, all hardwood floors, a kitchen to die for, plenty of bedrooms, which is a bit of a dealbreaker. Barry and Lup are moving in, too, for the time being at least; they’d  always talked about this, back during their days on the Starblaster, the four of them living together when they finally got to settle. One of many fantasies; they weren’t sure they’d ever get to stop. Lup’s body will finish growing soon, and she’ll need time and care to rehabilitate after ten years as a lich in an umbrella, and more than that Taako just wants them _close_ – besides the decade where they forgot, he’s never lived without her and that time was terrible, fame and fortune aside he hadn’t for a moment felt _whole_.

And Taako is sure they’ll always have guests in and out, Kravitz staying over whenever he can, Merle and the kids will always be welcome. There’s an old shed out back, too, really a small barn, that Magnus spots and immediately declares as his new woodshop, and a stream runs through the back of the property, backed up to a few acres of forest that don’t belong to anyone in particular. One of the many rooms has bookshelves built into the walls, a bit of craftsmanship that Magnus gushes over for a while, and Taako can see Angus in it right away, can just imagine the look on the Angus’s face when he sees it and realizes it can be his. He wants to give the kid a hundred libraries.

“You’re gonna love it, baby,” Taako says into his stone of farspeech. Kravitz is in the middle of a job, but Taako has kept him on the stone and described every house they’ve looked at in detail. It keeps him from freaking out about the finality of it all. He leans on the railing of the wrap-around porch that looks out over the back yard, the sun is starting to set and the space is too much but he will grow to fit it. It’s perfect. He doesn’t know why he’s so anxious. Maybe he’s mistaking excitement for dread, maybe it’s a bit of both. “Getting domestic as fuck up in here.”

Kravitz’s chuckle crackles over the stone and Taako feels his lips twitch into a smile that he can’t quite contain, just at the sound of his laugh, _god_ he has gotten disgusting. Kravitz has been so busy, after the apocalypse that nearly was, he’s barely seen him and he _misses_ him. Lup has spent more time with him that he has.

“It sounds wonderful, love,” Kravitz says. “Are you excited?”

“I think so. I dunno. It’s fucking weird, isn’t it? Never thought I’d be settling down, not that I had any kind of _plan._ I figured we’d… I don’t know. Travel the world, keep adventuring and all that jazz. Actually see what we saved.”

“Who says you can’t? I would love to travel with you. And I can’t imagine Magnus will stop adventuring for long. It’s not a vacation unless you have something to come home to, right?”

 _Gods,_ Taako adores him, he can’t believe this is his life now. Dating the Grim Reaper, getting domestic with Magnus, potentially adopting Angus, his family alive and well and he can finally stop running. He pokes and prods at the feeling blooming in his chest and thinks, _Huh. Guess that must be happiness_.

It’s nice.

“You always know what to say,” he says, watching as Magnus makes his way back across the yard from where he was checking out the state of the old shed.

“Look at all this space,” Magnus calls out as he approaches, he’s overjoyed by the yard. “All this room for dogs to run around!”

“Oh hell,” Taako groans, but he’s still grinning despite himself.

“Oh, darling, you have to let the man get a dog,” Kravitz laughs, and Magnus pouts at him.

“Yeah, we’ll see.” Of course they’ll have a dog. He’ll give Magnus a thousand dogs, give him anything to keep that smile on his face.

He wanders back inside when Kravitz has to hang up, steps from the porch into the kitchen and falls in love with it all over again, with the big oven and the stove with a cast-iron griddle built into the middle and the granite countertops. He still can’t cook with the confidence he had before Sizzle It Up, but he’s trying. Every day it’s a little easier - he comes back to the feeling of cooking with Joaquin, holds onto the rightness of the bond that was formed then, and it gives him the strength to come back to the stove. And he’s _excited_ to cook in this kitchen, his fingertips itch to pick up a knife and a skillet.

Magnus follows him from outside, he was taking one last look at the exterior of the house, making sure there wasn’t significant damage that would make them regret the purchase later. “Looks solid,” he says, joining Taako in the kitchen. “I think this will work just fine.”

“Did you think we’d ever get here?” Taako asks, leaning back on the counter. “All those years we spent running – you think we’d ever stop?”

He’s lived with Magnus most of the time he’d known him, but this is different, it’s the rest of their lives. A choice made more or less on a whim. Until all _this_ spiraled quickly out of control he hadn't put serious thought into _after_ \- after the Hunger, after the Bureau, after running for his life for a century; it had seemed never-ending for so long and he didn’t entirely expect to survive, so there was no point in making plans or giving a shit about anyone but himself and the six other people who had become his only family. Nothing was certain except that whatever he and Magnus did it would be together. He's fantasized, of course, thought about bringing back Sizzle It Up - but that feels so _small_ now and he can do so much more, he has more ideas than he can actually keep track of - or travelling the world he saved with Kravitz and Lup and Barry. It’s hard to catch up to himself.

“I didn’t think I’d live long enough,” Magnus says, so matter-of-fact, running a hand through his messy hair, and something twinges in Taako’s heart. Sitting here in this kitchen, in this house with him feels terrifyingly right, just his presence making the house seem more like a home, and part of Taako wants to run away from all of this, from the potential for so much happiness and so much hurt, maybe it would be better to just stick with what he knows, running until you can’t anymore, how can _he_ have a life like this, of all people – and yet another part of him wants this _so badly_ and he can’t quite believe it’s _happening_ and that, perhaps, is the scariest part.

“You want this?” Magnus asks quietly, eyes darting across Taako’s face searching for any hint of doubt.

Taako is sure he finds some, but it doesn’t creep into his voice when he answers. “I want this. As long as you do.”

Magnus smiles. Taako wants to make him smile like that every fucking day. “I’m ready. Are you?” He asks, and that one is a bit harder. Taako nibbles at his bottom lip. He doesn’t want to lie, not to Magnus. So instead of answering he reaches for Magnus’s hands, pulling him in close, and Magnus raises his eyebrows. No more running. He doesn’t need to anymore. Eventually he’ll believe that.

“Y’know,” Taako drawls, with a lazy grin, “this may be the most privacy we’ll ever have again.”

Magnus laughs, lets his question hang in the air, silence enough of an answer. “Yeah, between Lup and Barry and Angus it’s a full house.”

“So many people around, all the time,” Taako says, more insistent, ridiculous that he even has to try to convince Magnus to fuck him on this fancy-ass granite countertop. “We may _never have a moment alone again.”_

“Uh-huh…”

“Dearest. Darling. Lover.” Taako pulls him in even closer, arms looped around his neck, and Magnus’s hands settle firm and warm on his hips. There’s a glint of mischief in his eyes. “I’m propositioning you. _Sexually._ ”

He’s cut off, shrieking when Magnus’s hands slide down to cup his ass, lifting him like he weighs nothing to set him on the counter. “Oh, well in that case,” Magnus teases. Taako wraps his legs around Magnus’s waist, pulls him in for a kiss, closes his eyes, he’s afraid of a lot of things but not this, never this.

* * *

He scribbles his signature on the dotted line, just under Magnus’s, and just like that he has a home. He scribbles out his signature and tosses the pen back to Lucretia like he’s signing an autograph, pushes the papers back across the desk with a challenging stare and just like that, so does Angus, suddenly the newest member of the biggest, weirdest family in the multiverse. This must be why it takes nine months for babies to grow, to give you time to get used to the whole idea.

* * *

“I’m not entirely sure,” Kravitz says, slightly out of breath and arm muscles flexing as he lifts another box, “why I need to carry all this when you have actual, literal magic you could be using.”

Taako pauses to look at Kravitz, drags his eyes up and down his body. Hair tied up in a messy bun, sleeves rolled up to show off those arms as he lifts, hoo boy, no way is he letting magic get in the way of _this._ “Spell slots,” Taako says, sing-song, knowing full well that mage hand is a cantrip.

“Most powerful wizard in the planar system my ass,” Kravitz says with a grin.

Taako winks. “Aw, baby, you know I love hard work. I could watch it all day. That one goes in the living room.”

“Yes sir.” Kravitz leans in and gives him a kiss on the cheek before he hefts the box and makes his way inside, just behind Magnus, who is trying to prove he can carry an entire couch by himself, with Killian and Carey egging him on. They had recruited a ton of people to help with the move - he watches as Barry and Merle move various pieces of furniture, with Lup hovering nearby levitating things around. By the end of the day this will be home. It’s all happening and if Taako is feeling a little shaky, well, moving five people from the moon is hard work, okay.

Lucretia isn’t here and the way he can feel her absence pisses him off. She’d offered to come help; he hadn’t refused, he simply hadn’t answered either way, and she had clearly taken that as a sign to stay away. He’s trying real hard not to think about that, about what Magnus will think of that.

“Sir, look!” Angus chirps from behind him, and Taako turns to see him with his wand held out, tongue poking out from the gap in his front teeth as he concentrates on levitating a small box. “I’m just a little boy so I can’t help carry all the furniture, but I hope I can still be useful! Gosh, your house is really big.”

“Oh dunk, is that second level? Look at you go.” He tries not to look _too_ impressed, but he can feel the corners of his mouth turning up against his will.

Angus nods, grinning with all his teeth. “Yes sir! I’ve been practicing with some of the books you lent me! Am I doing good?”

Taako waves a hand dismissively. “Yeah, it’s fine, I guess, don’t quit your day job or anything. Dump that in the kitchen and then follow me, okay? Got something to show you.”

Angus darts away, the box bobbing up and down in the air in front of him as he heads inside. For a moment Taako pauses and watches Angus duck underneath Magnus’s arm as he slips in the door, and finds himself smiling as he watches him go. He goes inside, finds Magnus quickly, he’s in the living room having just finished moving the couch inside, and he goes to him and kisses his cheek before nodding toward Angus.

They lead him upstairs, down the hall to the room with the bookshelf walls, and watch Angus’s eyes light up as they step inside, the exact face Taako knew he would make.

“Oh my gosh sirs, it’s a library!” He cries, because of course he takes in the bookshelves before the bedroom furniture. Magnus had come up here and unpacked the few boxes of books earlier - most of them Angus’s, and quite a few of Taako’s old spell books from when he and Lup started studying magic, nothing he needs now but he could never quite bear to throw them away, one of the few sentimental things he always carried with him no matter how quickly he and Lup often had to run and leave everything behind. A few other boxes are stacked against the wall, all marked with Angus’s name, the few belongings he had brought with him to the moon base. None of this escapes Angus’s notice - he sees a shelf full of _Caleb Cleveland: Kid Cop_ and turns to Taako and Magnus where they hover in the doorway, and Taako’s stomach twists in sudden anxiety. Angus’s eyes are wide as saucers as he says, “Those are my books, sirs.”

“Well, duh,” Taako says with an exaggerated eye roll. “It’s your room, little man, where else should we put them? Thought you were s’posed to be some kind of genius.”

“M...my room, sirs?”

Magnus shifts closer, a hand resting on Taako’s back - a source of comfort, like he could sense the panic threatening to build in Taako, _what if he doesn’t want this, what if we shouldn’t have kept it a surprise, what if we aren’t good enough?_ He instinctively leans into the touch, into the warmth of Magnus’s hand. “Yeah, Ango,” Magnus says. “We know you’re really independant and you’ll want to keep doing your detective work, but everyone needs a place to come back to. This is your home now, if you want it to be.”

 _Damn you_ , Taako thinks, coming up with heartfelt shit off the top of his head like that, making Taako look bad. His breath is knocked out of him as Angus barrels into them, his arms wrapped around Taako’s middle. He’s not crying, but his voice wavers when he says, “You mean it? This isn’t a goof? It’s not a very good one if it is, sirs.”

“No goofs,” Magnus says. He drops down to his knees on the floor, wrapping Angus in a hug, and Taako with him, the boy still hasn’t loosened his vice grip on Taako’s waist. Taako rests a hand on Angus’s head, unsure what to do now.

“Thank you, thank you so much,” he says, lifting his head to look up at Taako, then at Magnus. “I don’t know what to say!”

“You’ll think of somethin’,” Taako says, absently running his hands through Angus’s thick curls. He begins to say more, but a shout from downstairs interrupts him.

“TAAKO!” Lup bellows. “COME HELP US WITH THIS SHIT!”

“HOLD YOUR FUCKING HORSES, JESUS!” He shouts back. He grins down at Angus, who fails his deception check when he quickly rubs his eyes, stepping back. “Duty calls.”

“Would it be okay if I stay up here a little while, sirs? To unpack the rest of my things? Do I get to stay here tonight?”

“Yes and yes,” Magnus says, clapping him on the shoulder. “And you know you don’t have to call us sir if you don’t want to, right?”

“Y-yes si - I mean Magnus, I mean...” he says, eyes wide, looking a little overwhelmed. “Does - um - does this mean you’re my dads? Is that what I should call you?”

Taako feels his brain short circuit, he has no idea what his expression must be communicating. Magnus glances at him and - god, he looks like he’s about to cry from happiness, like this is the day of his wedding or some shit. Taako doesn’t trust himself to say anything as Magnus looks back to Angus.

“I guess that’s up to you, kiddo,” he says gently, because of course Magnus is going to be the best parental figure ever, Taako should have expected nothing less. “Is that what you want?”

Angus looks down at the floor, biting his lip. “I… I guess I don’t really know yet, sir,” he says quietly.

“That’s okay too! We don’t know what we’re doing either, buddy,” Magnus says, and that earns him a little laugh from Angus. “We can make it up as we go, okay?”

“Okay.” He still looks overwhelmed, so Taako figures it’s maybe best to give him a minute to himself. He tousles the kid’s hair again in a way that he hopes can be read as both affectionate and indifferent, leading Magnus out of the room as Angus immediately dives in to one of the boxes, eager to unpack. He looks up again as they’re leaving the room and says, once more with feeling, “Thank you, sirs.”

Magnus goes back to lifting furniture and boxes with the rest of the crew, but Taako takes a moment, leaning on the wall in the hallway, focusing on his breathing, on not thinking for a second. He’ll be fine, he knows he’ll be fine, it’s just all so _much,_ gods but he has no idea what he’ll do if Angus wants to call him _dad,_ terrified and proud all at once, how can he ever live up to that?

He isn’t alone long before Lup appears, as if she’d been able to sense he was beginning to spiral, and that’s something he hadn’t even known he’d missed all those years without her: they always knew when they needed each other, knew that the other would be there in an instant if they called, knew this like they knew the laws of nature. And if the time after she had left, when he had needed her so badly and she was just _gone,_ rises unbidden in his memory and if that memory tastes bitter in his mouth, well, Taako is very good at burying these things deep. He offers her a smile as she draws close, a hand on his arm.

“So?” She asks excitedly. “How did it go? Did he like the bookshelves?”

“You know, I think he did,” Taako says. It’s already better, with her here. He still can’t help the nervousness coursing through him, the sureness that somehow everything is going to go wrong, wrong, wrong, that soon all of this will fall apart. They haven’t exactly had a great track record as far as a stable home life, him and Lup. Most moving days, they had quickly learned - back when they were kids, carted back and forth from one distant family member to another with barely a duffel bag between the two of them - were just a promise that they would have to leave it all behind again before long.

He doesn’t bother trying to hide any of this from her, she can always see right through him, and besides, his habits aren’t hard to read; he catches himself worrying at the end of his braid, nibbling at his bottom lip. And sure enough she gives his arm a squeeze, watching him closely. “You gonna be okay, bro?”

Taako shrugs helplessly, looking down at the floor, his beautiful hardwood floors, and he lets out a shaky breath. “Hard to stop moving after a while, I guess. It’s dumb, but… keep thinking someone’s gonna come by and kick us out, y’know”

“Yeah. Yeah, I know.” She smiles, soft and knowing. “You remember that first apartment we had, when we finally could afford it?”

He snorts. “How could I forget that shithole?”

They had been so young, but they’d been on their own forever, long before they could work real jobs to afford housing that wasn’t on wheels. The apartment _was_ a shithole; the heat never worked, there was a leak in the ceiling of the single bedroom, and they’d had to build a makeshift barricade for the door when the lock just broke in their hands and the landlord never bothered to repair it. But it had felt like a goddamn triumph just getting the place. To fall asleep and wake up in the same place, to have somewhere to unpack the few things they owned for the first time since they were kids. He’d brought home shit he didn’t need all the time, just because he finally had a place to keep it.

“It was a total dump, no doubt,” Lup agrees. “But it was ours, yeah? We fucking earned it. And no one could take that from us.”

“Yeah,” Taako says, looking up from the floor. Almost without thinking he takes Lup’s hand, squeezing it tight. And he looks around the house - his house, _their house,_ the more he thinks it the more real it becomes, the more he believes it - and almost can’t fathom that he went from that shithole of an apartment, to the Starblaster, to this, Lup by his side the whole way. He watches Merle, chatting with Magnus as they move box after box into the living room, watches Kravitz give Barry a fond pat on the shoulder as they pass each other on the stairs, Barry levitating a pile of their belongings up to his and Lup’s room upstairs; upstairs where Angus is carefully unpacking all of his things, knowing now that he won’t be left alone, never again. He watches his family all together, and his chest is tight with something he’s starting to recognize as happiness.

They’ve fucking earned it.

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me about these sweet boys and their good good family on the tumbler [@androidsfighting](http://androidsfighting.tumblr.com)


End file.
